


darling, are you ready for more?

by fitzroysquare



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Academic rivals, College, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Pre-Season/Series 01, University, beer pong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29247291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fitzroysquare/pseuds/fitzroysquare
Summary: Nights out like this weren't really Tosh’s thing. But during freshers’ week, she had been egged on by her new coursemates to participate in a beer pong contest, which had resulted in Tosh’s first meeting and loss to her eventual academic rival: Angela stupidface Wang. And, well, that wasn’t something Tosh could just walk away from. Thus began the intense rivalry that had seemed to follow Tosh throughout university.AKA Tosh, beer pong, and an academic rival.
Relationships: Toshiko Sato/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4
Collections: Torchwood Fan Fests: 2021 Femslash Fest





	darling, are you ready for more?

**Author's Note:**

> for femslash 2021! 
> 
> title taken from girl in red’s song bad idea!

Tosh narrows her eyes, her fingers gently rolling the ping pong ball between her fingers as she gazes over the table before her. Approaching her current situation the same way she does a difficult math proof, Tosh tunes out the music blaring from the speakers of the university pub, concentrating on what’s in front of her and nothing else. Even the crowd of people jammed all around, waiting and watching in anticipation, can’t break her concentration.

“Heeey, Tosh,” her opponent says, interrupting with a velvety smooth and arrogant voice. “Why don’t you just give up now? Then it’ll be less humiliating for you when I win.”

Tosh laughs without looking up, ridiculing even the thought of forfeiting. With one cup on her opponent’s side and three on hers, she’d be stupid to give up now. And Tosh would be damned if she was going to lose to Angela _freaking_ Wang, especially after Angela had gotten a better score on their particle physics formative a week before and had won the last beer pong matchup the week before that.

So it would have to be a cold day in Hell before Tosh would even think about quitting.

“In your dreams, Wang,” Tosh shoots back, tossing the ball neatly in the air before catching it in the palm of her hand. “Your ass is grass and not only am I going to mow it down, but I’m also going to take a weed wacker to it.”

She aims, zeroing in on her target and drawing her arm back. In a perfectly executed move, Tosh throws the ping pong ball and watches as it neatly lands in its intended target: the plastic cup that wins her the game and ends the entire thing.

She looks up triumphantly as her ears are greeted by the chanting of her name by the observers around her. People reach to slap her on the back, throwing words of congratulations up in the air, but the only thing Tosh is looking forward to is rubbing her win into Angela _she’stheworst_ Wang’s terrible face.

“Oh damn it,” Angela sighs, grudgingly picking up the plastic cup to drink. “That really was a good shot.”

Angela chugs the cup and Tosh watches as some of the beer spills out and onto the side of her face, running down her jaw to her throat. Tosh doesn’t even realise that she’s staring until Angela, finished with her drink, catches Tosh’s eye and winks.

“How refreshing,” she says, flicking the empty cup back onto the table and watching it as it bounces in Tosh’s direction.

Similarly, Tosh’s eyes follow the cup as it travels across the table, trying to ignore the annoyance steadily growing inside when Angela doesn’t even sound upset at her loss.

“Score’s even now,” Tosh casually mentions, not quite looking at Angela. “You might want to watch out for the next time we end up at this table.”

“Oh, if next time is anything like our particle physics quiz or the quantum mechanics one before that, I think I have nothing to worry about,” Angela says smugly, an incredibly self-assured look crossing her face to Tosh’s irritation.

Sometimes, Tosh can’t believe how much she hates dealing with Angela _peabrain_ Wang.

With nothing to say to that, or at least nothing nice that would also be appropriate, Tosh begins to pick up her jacket and purse laying on the ground, ready to head back to her room and get to bed at a reasonable time. The crowd begins to clear out too, dispersing around the pub as it becomes clear that another game isn’t happening.

Nights out like this weren't really Tosh’s thing. But during freshers’ week, she had been egged on by her new coursemates to participate in a beer pong contest, which had resulted in Tosh’s first meeting and loss to her eventual academic rival: Angela _stupidface_ Wang. And, well, that wasn’t something Tosh could just walk away from. Thus began the intense rivalry that had seemed to follow Tosh throughout university.

And God had Angela Wang been an intense pain in Tosh’s butt since day one.

Tosh knows she’s smart, having been told that and other similar variations ever since she could lift a pencil and solve whatever problem was on the paper in front of her. But the thing she prides herself on, the real reason she’s “smart” and “successful”, is all down to her intense work ethic and the immense sacrifices of her parents who gave her the opportunities to excel. She isn’t naturally smart, she’s a person who works at being smart. And that’s something that most people had never seemed to realise.

It’s that exact dedication to her studies that had gotten Tosh through primary school and all the way to university. Top of her class, top of her year, and top of the school, because Tosh had picked up book after book without stopping for breath.

And sure, Tosh expects competition in university and to be challenged by her fellow coursemates. It’s something she even looked forward to as an incoming fresher. But Angela Wang, with her stupidly perfect brains and even better grades, is someone that Tosh takes as a personal insult. In the beginning, even after she lost to Wang in that first beer pong game, Tosh had thought that maybe there was finally someone in her life who got exactly how she felt about science and who could keep up. But all of her hopes were dashed the second that Tosh had stepped into the first week’s lecture just in time to hear Wang say: “Toshiko Sato? Oh please, I’m not worried about her. She isn’t even that smart.”

So yes, Tosh admits that she absolutely detests Angela _goddamn_ Wang with every fiber of her being.

It’s not in Tosh’s nature to dislike someone so much, but she just can’t help it that whenever she looks at Wang’s stupid, infuriating face she’s reminded of all the brutal insecurities that have ever plagued her. All of that pushes Tosh to keep going when it’s 3 a.m and she’s already miles ahead on her deadlines, even though overall she already has the best scores in her year.

Her latest win evens out the overall score between the two of them and restores a sense of equilibrium in Tosh’s mind, but she still leaves the table without even a nod towards Angela, refusing to be in the girl’s presence any more than she has to. It’s not like Tosh won’t see Angela’s stupid, smug face in the front row of tomorrow’s lecture, anyway.

Tosh heads towards the door, only taking a few steps away from the table before stopping in her tracks. Entering the pub right at that moment is Kevin Nguyen, the guy she had been dodging for the past two weeks ever since they had gone on an uneventful, and frankly boring, date. Tosh wonders if standing completely still will allow her to blend into the decor of the pub, but her best attempts at imitating a statue ends up being fruitless as Kevin locks eyes with her and grins, ecstatic to see her.

He begins making his way across the pub floor towards her direction and Tosh immediately goes into panic mode, red sirens blaring across her mind. Sure, the guy was nice, cute, and all those other things that made for a decent person. But he was, in Tosh’s opinion, also exceedingly boring. Not one for confrontation, she had tried her best at letting him down gently, but it had seemed that she had been so nice that it had gone completely over his head- which now left her in this awkward predicament.

Still in panic mode, Tosh’s arm flails out around her, grabbing at the air until it hits a person’s arm somewhere behind her. She grasps firmly onto whoever it is, so desperate for an escape plan that doesn’t involve confrontation that she doesn’t even bother to look at who they are.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry for this,” Tosh breathes out before spinning around and kissing the person she had grabbed firmly on their mouth.

Whoever she’s kissing turns out to have the softest lips she has ever felt and Tosh gets lost in the feeling as the other person eagerly responds, deepening the kiss. Tosh draws closer to the mystery person, pressing her entire body against theirs.

To her surprise, Tosh feels a pang of disappointment when they finally pull apart and she opens her eyes to come face to face with the person she had grabbed to use as an anti-boy repellent

“You know, you never need to apologise for kissing me,” Angela says, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “Especially when you kiss like that, Tosh.”

Brain short-circuiting, she registers what had just happened: Her, Toshiko Sato, kissing her rival Angela _godherlipsaresosoft_ Wang.

_Oh God._

“Oh God,” Tosh breathes out in disbelief.

“Nope, just me,” Angela says cheekily, grinning. “But I know it’s hard to tell the difference.”

When Tosh doesn’t respond, her entire body rooted in place from sheer shock, the expression on Angela’s face falls from unabashed glee to genuine concern.

“Hey,” Angela says, her voice no longer inflated with its usual brashness. “Come on, let's get you some air.”

Grabbing Tosh’s hand, Angela leads her towards the exit, passing by Kevin Ngyugen who is shuffling awkwardly in the middle of the pub floor, staring down at his shoes and blushing. Tosh follows along automatically, not even flinching when the cool air of the London night hits her as they exit the pub.

They end up on the edge of the pavement, where Angela forces Tosh to sit and catch her breath. Still holding each other’s hands, Tosh takes deep breaths, waiting for the erratic thrum of her heart rate to return to normal. Moments pass as she concentrates on taking deep breaths in and out, blocking out the noise of cars driving by. When her heartbeat slows, Tosh realises that her hand is still intertwined with Angela and hurriedly snatches it away, grabbing to hold her jacket with both hands.

“Look,” Tosh says, standing up from the curb. “Let’s just forget about what just happened, okay? I panicked, needed someone to make a point, and that person turned out to be you. So we can go our separate ways and pretend that this never happened. God knows that I already am.”

“What if I don’t want to forget what happened?” Angela challenges, looking up at Tosh from her position on the ground.

Tosh splutters, incredulous. For a second, she thinks what? Does that mean...

But then she remembers that of course it’s not, because it’s Angela _bloody_ Wang and the girl is nothing but a menace who’ll take any chance to hold something over her head. So Tosh, anticipating the rush of bullshit probably about to spill out of Angela’s mouth, goes on the offensive.

“Can’t you just leave me alone?” Tosh argues back. “Make fun of me behind my back if you want! But I can’t have it out with you right now. Really not in the mood to deal with an arrogant wanker.” She huffs and kicks at the ground, ready to leave without a look backward.

In a swift movement, Angela stands up, putting her at the same height as Tosh.

“First of all, that’s not what I meant. And second, why do you hate me so much? What’s your problem, anyway?” Angela exclaims, the words bursting out of her with a frenzy.

“Why do I hate you?” Tosh says in disbelief. “Because you hate me!”

“I only hate you because you hate me!”

The words hang in the air as each girl registers what the other had said. Thick silence reigns supreme and it occupies the space between them until Tosh dares to break it.

“The first week, a few days after our first beer pong game,” Tosh says slowly and honestly. “In the first lecture of the term? I heard you talking. Saying that you thought that I wasn’t even that smart.”

Tosh picks up speed, finally allowing her months-long frustration to be released as she spews out the enormity of her pent-up feelings.

“But you know what? I work so hard for what I have and yes, maybe it’s petty, but it’s just frustrating that I work my ass off at the library pulling all-nighters while you just breeze through everything, effortlessly smart and-”

“Effortlessly smart?” Angela says incredulously. “Do you know how hard it is to keep up with you? How many weekends that I’ve lost out on and coursework that I skipped just so I could focus all of my efforts into beating you on one quiz?”

Anglea huffs then sucks in a deep breath as if trying to maintain firm control of her emotions.

“You’re a genius,” she says, eyes piercing into Tosh’s. “It’s all everybody says. The department introduction meeting during the first week? All the lecturers could talk about was you. And my parents, God, they’re both lecturers in the department, did you know that? For months even before the first day of term I had to listen to them talk about ‘Toshiko Sato this, Toshiko Sato, that’. Let me tell you, it was bloody annoying. So okay, yeah, I admit it. I said those things and everything after because I was jealous. But it doesn’t even matter because in the end, you always win! Beer pong, the particle physics class, the entire bloody course- it doesn’t matter. You win.”

Maybe it’s the uncharacteristic bitterness in Angela’s voice or maybe it is the brutal honesty in the air, but despite hearing the words she had for months desperately wanted to hear, Tosh feels the exact opposite of victorious. What she feels instead is rather dizzy, and she sucks in a deep breath, trying to get control of the thoughts spinning around in her mind at a million miles an hour.

“I’m sorry,” Tosh says softly, the two words spilling out of her mouth, taking with it months of jealousy, anger, and frustration. Despite the hundreds of curses that she had hurled at Angela in her head over the past months, Tosh feels no animosity for the girl now. Not after realising how similar they actually were.

“And I’m not a genius,” Tosh continues. “No more than you are. It’s just… I think that’s all people see when they look at me. How good I am at maths or science when they don’t even know me. And if I’m being honest, sometimes I think that’s my fault. Because I’m not the loudest voice in the room or the type to skip class just to go clubbing on a weeknight. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself. But that first week, when I saw you… I thought maybe there was finally someone who knew how it felt.”

Angela laughs, the bitterness gone from her voice though it still lacks humour.

“Guess I kinda fucked up everything,” she says. “The first few days, all I saw when I looked around the room was competition. There’s a hundred and twenty-eight of us in this course and do you know how many girls there are? Just fourteen. Isn’t that just crazy?”

“It’s bad,” Tosh says, in acknowledgement. “And I won’t lie and say that those exact thoughts haven’t crossed my mind. But... isn’t that all the more reason why we shouldn’t fight? Earlier, you said that I won. But I don’t think anyone wins in a situation like this.”

Angela sniffs, and Tosh doesn’t know if it’s because of the cold night air or because she’s trying to hold back tears.

“Yeah, it would’ve been nice, I think,” Angela acknowledges, her eyes fixed on her shoes. “If we had been friends from the beginning. Too bad I fucked it up, huh?”

“Well,” Tosh says, shyly, hope shining through in her voice. “Who says we can’t start being friends now? No time like the present.”

Glancing up from her feet, Angela raises her head to see Tosh’s soft smile, which she quickly reciprocates with one of her own.

“Friends?” Tosh asks, sticking out her hand.

“Friends,” Angela says, smiling, reaching out to take Tosh’s hand in hers.

The two shake hands and Tosh thinks that Angela’s hands, like her lips, are impossibly soft.

“Tell me one thing,” Tosh says after. “You said that your parents are lecturers in the department, so like, do you actually enjoy it? Physics, I mean. Or is everything just-” Tosh gestures with her hand to finish her sentence.

“Parts of it,” Angela says, shrugging. “Research more than theory. I used to do maths club in sixth form- that’s the part I like. There’s something so reliable about maths. Always the right answer.”

“Really?” Tosh says, skeptically. “That’s how you see maths?”

Angela laughs, her teeth peeking out from between her lips.

“Nah, I’m just fucking with you. Kinda. Maths is reliable. I already know I’m already going to be up at 2 a.m. crying over it,” Angela says, grinning. “You never know with people until you’re three months in and somehow you’re still surprised when you’re drunk sobbing over a toilet bowl after chugging box wine.”

Tosh blinks, caught a little off guard from the sudden twist in topic.

“Well that... sounds oddly specific.”

“What can I say? That’s just what happens when your ex-girlfriend breaks up with you _because apparently both of our horoscopes didn’t align_.”

An involuntary snort comes out of Tosh’s nose.

“Okay,” Tosh agrees. “That is funny. But listen to this: I got together with my sixth form girlfriend and had my first kiss right after I punched her boyfriend, ‘cause he was mad I stole his girl.”

“That’s such a lie,” Angela argues. “No way.”

“It’s true!”

“Toshiko Sato, secret badass,” Angela muses. “Next thing you’ll tell me is that you're moonlighting as a crime-fighting vigilante with a cape and all.”

“Well, you didn’t let me finish, did you? But no cape, just black spandex.”

“Oh, I’d love to see that.”

Tosh giggles at that, but doesn’t respond.

Despite the silence that follows, the two girls linger on the pavement, neither saying anything to continue the conversation, but both clearly reluctant to end it there. The long stretch of silence continues to lapse between them as the moment folds into another moment which folds into another. Tosh wants to open her mouth to say something, anything really, but in the end she doesn’t have to as the door to the pub opens as someone exits the building, filling the air with the sound of Elton John’s voice.

“Oh I love this song,” Angela breathes out, the air so chilly that Tosh can see her breath when she speaks.

Angela closes her eyes, softly singing along to the words.

_Hold me closer tiny dancer, count the headlights on the highway..._

“Dance with me, Tosh!”

Angela grabs Tosh’s hand, spinning her around and back before they crash into each other, giggling into each other’s bodies. Pressed up this close against Angela’s body, Tosh can see the individual flecks of brown in Angela’s eyes. Her jacket and purse lay forgotten on the pavement by her feet.

“Like what you’re seeing?” Angela teased.

Tosh blushes and looks down, not knowing if the rush of heat in her cheeks is from the alcohol or her heart hammering away in her chest. She looks back up, wanting to capture this perfect moment in time to save along all her other memories, and fights the urge to reach out and brush away the stray hairs falling across Angela _whyissheoprettyithurts_ Wang’s face. She thinks that maybe, instead, she should be bolder and lean in for a kiss, to try and capture the same feeling that she felt back inside the pub. If there was ever a moment for it, this is it.

But the thing about moments in time is that they pass, disappearing into the air with all those other what-ifs and could’ve-beens. And like all of the anger and frustration that weighed on her at the start of the night, this moment is gone. All that there is out on the cold London street are two girls and the space between them.

And Tosh is content to let it be.

(For now, anyway.)

**Author's Note:**

> ummm yeah this is me trying to keep to tosh's canon love life but also wanting her to be happy for once in her goddamn life


End file.
